Bible Contradiction? Who survived to see the promised land during the Exodus?

 

For today’s post we will tackle the question the Skeptic Annotated Bible asked: Who survived to see the promised land during the Exodus?

Here are the two answers which the skeptic believes shows a Bible contradiction:

Only Caleb

“Certainly all the people who have seen My glory and My signs which I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have put Me to the test these ten times and have not listened to My voice, 23 shall by no means see the land which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who were disrespectful to Me see it. 24 But as for My servant Caleb, because he has had a different spirit and has followed Me fully, I will bring him into the land which he entered, and his descendants shall take possession of it.” (Numbers 14:22-24)

Both Caleb and Joshua

“those men who brought the bad report of the land also died by a plague in the presence of the Lord. 38 But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive out of those men who went to spy out the land.” (Numbers 14:37-38)

“But among these there was not a man of those who were numbered by Moses and Aaron the priest, who numbered the sons of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai. 65 For the Lord had said of them, “They shall certainly die in the wilderness.” And not a man was left of them, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun.” (Numbers 26:64-65)

“So the Lord’s anger burned on that day, and He swore, saying, 11 ‘None of the men who came up from Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; for they did not follow Me fully, 12 except Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite and Joshua the son of Nun; for they have followed the Lord fully.’” (Numbers 32:10-12)

(All Scriptural quotation comes from the New American Standard Bible)

Here’s a closer look at whether or not there is a contradiction:

1. When dealing with skeptics’ claim of Bible contradictions it seems one can never be reminded enough of what exactly is a contradiction.  A contradiction occurs when two or more claims conflict with one another so that they cannot simultaneously be true in the same sense and at the same time.  To put it another way, a Bible contradiction exists when there are claims within the Bible that are mutually exclusive in the same sense and at the same time.
2. One should be skeptical of whether this is a Bible contradiction given the Skeptic Annotated Bible’s track record of inaccurately handling the Bible.  See the many examples of their error which we have responded to in this post: Collection of Posts Responding to Bible Contradictions.  Of course that does not take away the need to respond to this claim of a contradiction, which is what the remainder of this post will do.  But this observation should caution us to slow down and look more closely at the passages cited by the Skeptic Annotated Bible to see if they interpreted the passages properly to support their conclusion that it is a Bible contradiction.
3. The skeptic tries to pit Numbers 14:22-24 as affirming the claim “Only Caleb survived to see the promised land during the Exodus ” against three passages (Numbers 14:37-38, Numbers 26:64-65, Numbers 32:10-12) as affirming “Both Caleb and Joshua survived to see the promised land during the Exodus.” 
4. The skeptic rightly cited Numbers 14:37-38, Numbers 26:64-65 and Numbers 32:10-12 correctly as affirming “Both Caleb and Joshua survived to see the promised land during the Exodus.”  These three passages mentioned by name Caleb and Joshua as remaining alive, was left and as those whom God was not angry with.
5. The skeptic did not rightly interpret Numbers 14:22-24 as affirming the claim “Only Caleb survived to see the promised land during the Exodus.”  The verses did not use the word “only.”  It is wrong to extrapolate that.  Just because one person was mentioned (Caleb) that does not mean He was the only one that survived.
6. The problem here is not with the Bible but the skeptic’s method of reading the Bible.  He’s assuming that one account giving more details than another account means there’s a logical contradiction; but that’s problematic and not to mention its a failure of understanding the law of non-contradiction.  Furthermore outside of the Bible we also see that if there’s multiple historical account of the same event and one historical account did not mentioned a detail that doesn’t mean another account that did mentioned the detail is somehow contradicting with the first account.  I think of the recent example I gave in my post “First Marine Division History and alleged Bible Contradiction.”  Multiple other examples abound such as Gold Medal at the Cambrian Patrol, the Louisiana Purchase, the Thanksgiving Story, and September 11th.  I bring these examples up is to make the point that the rebuttal to the skeptic here isn’t something that’s unique to the Bible but its also how we deal with historical account in general.
7. There is no contradiction here.  Seems the skeptic needs to learn of How to Handle Bible Contradictions.
8. We shouldn’t miss that worldviews are at play even with the skeptic’s objection to Christianity.  The worldview of the author of the Skeptic Annotated Bible actually doesn’t even allow for such a thing as the law of non-contradiction to be meaningful and intelligible.  In other words for him to try to disprove the Bible by pointing out that there’s a Bible contradiction doesn’t even make sense within his own worldview.  Check out our post “Skeptic Annotated Bible Author’s Self-Defeating Worldview.”
    

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